The present invention relates to gear-shift and brake-control assemblies for racing bicycles.
In particular, the invention relates to a gearshift and brake-control set or assembly for a racing bicycle, of the type comprising:
a device for controlling the brake, including:
a supporting body fixable at the front on a respective end portion of the handlebars of the bicycle; and
a brake lever, mounted articulated, at its top end, to the aforesaid supporting body and extending downwards, starting from the latter, substantially in a vertical direction, at the front and at a distance from the respective end portion of the handlebars; and
a device for controlling the gear-shift, including:
a rotor mounted so that it can turn in the aforesaid supporting body about an axis that is substantially parallel to the longitudinal direction of the bicycle;
a pulley carried by the rotor, for winding of a gear-control cable;
indexing means designed to define a plurality of operating positions of the rotor corresponding to the different gear ratios that can be selected by the gear shift;
a first gear-control lever located behind and along the brake lever and mounted so that it can oscillate about an axis that is substantially parallel to the longitudinal direction of the bicycle, said first gear-control lever being designed to cause rotation of the rotor in a first direction; and
a second gear-control lever projecting transversely from an internal side of the supporting body and this too mounted so that it can oscillate about an axis that is substantially parallel to the longitudinal direction of the bicycle, said second gear-control lever being designed to cause rotation of the rotor in a second direction.
An assembly of this type has been produced and sold for several years by the present applicant under the trade mark xe2x80x9cERGOPOWERxe2x80x9d and has formed the subject of the U.S. Pat. No. 5,479,776, as well as of the corresponding German patent No. 4 413 610 and of the corresponding French patent No. 2 704 199.
In recent years, there has been an increasingly widespread use in bicycles of an on-board computer with the corresponding display which enables the cyclist to visualize the various operating parameters, among which also the gear ratio selected with the gear shift. It has therefore become necessary to provide transducer devices able to send to an electronic control unit an electrical signal indicating the operating condition of the gear shift.
The present applicant has presented a gear-shift and brake-control assembly of the type specified above, which also integrates a sensor for detecting the position of the aforesaid rotor for winding the gearshift cable, in his Italian patent application TO98A000492, which was rendered public on Dec. 5, 1999, and in the corresponding German patent application DE19913951 and in the corresponding French patent application 2 779 407. In this previously proposed solution, the assembly also includes a control pushbutton for controlling the operating mode of a display associated to the handlebars of the bicycle, which is mounted in the aforesaid supporting body of the control assembly.
Research studies and practical experience have, however, led the applicant to verify that, on the one hand, the provision of this control button may prove necessary also in the absence of a position sensor for the gear-shift assembly and, on the other hand, this control button must be positioned in such a way that it is easy to operate, without the cyclist having to modify the position of his hand on the handlebars and without involving the risk of an undesired operation of the aforesaid second gear-shift lever.
With the aim of meeting the above requirements, the subject of the present invention is a gear-shift and brake-control assembly of the type referred to at the beginning of the present description, further including a push-button mounted on the supporting body for controlling the operating mode of a display associated to the handlebars of the bicycle, characterized in that the aforesaid supporting body of the control assembly has a side wall facing the inside of the handlebars, in that said push-button is carried by an independent electric-switch body mounted on said side wall, with the push-button projecting through a window of said side wall, and in that said window is located in a position further back (with reference to the direction of advance of the bicycle) and higher up than the position in which the aforesaid second gear-control lever is located.
Thanks to the above-mentioned characteristics, the control button is easy to operate by the cyclist, without any need for him to modify the position of his hand on the handlebars, and without involving the risk of an inadvertent operation of the aforesaid second gear-shift lever.
According to a preferred embodiment, the supporting body of the control assembly is provided with a metal clamp that can be tightened by a screw for fixing to the handlebars, and the body of the electric switch is set between the internal face of the aforesaid side wall and a portion of the clamp. Preferably, the body of the electric switch includes elastic means designed to take up automatically the play between the side wall and the clamp.